Intrusion
by Maladin
Summary: Alternate Scene set during Final Exam. The fight to kick the remaining Titans out of their own tower was much tougher than planned.


**The primary aim of this fanfiction, based on the intrusion of the HIVE FIVE in **_**Final Exam**_**, was to train my fight writing skills. The secondary aim was to write the HIVE trio like in the first season, back when they were actually badass and not laughable thugs effortlessly dispatched by grandmothers and speedsters.**

**Disclaimer: Teen Titans and all its characters, names, locations and so on, are the intellectual property of its respective owners. I do not claim ownership over Teen Titans or anything within it. I am not making any profit from these fanfictions either.**

----

Jinx strolled down one of the several corridors found within Titan Tower, playing a twisted parody of hide-and-seek with the target she had chosen after the Titans split up. Gizmo obviously chose the only person who could equal his genius, Cyborg, as his personal adversary while Mammoth was eager to prove that not even a Tamaranean could match his genetically enhanced strength. Crushing Raven was just an added bonus in his mind, albeit a very amusing one. As for Beast Boy, he was an interesting opportunity to work on both her aim and magic, seeing how he fled before her.

Save for the entrance at the bottom of the tower, its lower rooms were surprisingly weakly lit. Jinx had no time to ponder whether such a dim-out was usual or caused by the alarm their attack didn't fail to avoid, for echoing footsteps betrayed the changeling's presence somewhere in the dark corridor she was facing. With a smirk and a wave of her hand, she hexed the upper panels of the hall, making them cave in. A high-pitched cry of surprise only made her smirk grow stronger.

She unhurriedly followed after him. "Here, kitty, kitty. What's the matter?" she asked mischievously while breaking up the ceiling more and more. "Afraid of a little bad luck?"

After the debris stopped falling, Jinx pricked her ears. She heard no noise, but it didn't disappoint her in the very least. Beast Boy probably overcame his panic and morphed into a more furtive creature, and it only meant more fun for her. Jinx stealthily followed the halls, searching for her target. The irony that Beast Boy, master of the animal kingdom, had been reduced into a prey wasn't lost to her.

She stepped from around a corner and found Beast Boy a few metres ahead of her, catching his breath and back to her. She carefully leaned against the wall and watched him trying to regain his composure.

"Lost her," he panted, unaware of the pair of pink spells flying over him and hitting the ceiling above.

Her previous hexes didn't harm Beast Boy, but these ones were much more efficient. A panel swung loose and dropped hard on his face, knocking him down. The sorceress quietly walked up behind him as he sat, rubbing his sore head. Jinx crouched down to his level, a ghost of a smile on her lips.

"This just isn't your lucky day," she said as she grasped his shoulders and spun him around to make him face her. "The only thing you lost today is your leader," she added, her voice dripping with malice and her pink eyes cruelly staring right into Beast Boy's ones.

And delight lit her eyes when Beast Boy surrendered to her provocation, his own eyes burning in anger, and began morphing. She backflipped away from her opponent as he turned into a large green bull, hot air blowing from his nostrils and ready to charge. Which he promptly did, dashing towards the villainess who so harshly commented on Robin's disappearance. She wasn't shaken at all by the powerful creature rushing her way.

Jinx just stood her ground, waiting patiently for Beast Boy to come closer. When he was near enough, she firmly set her foot on his bovine head and hopped above him before landing safely behind him, while the emerald bull went crashing into the wall he was now facing, having lost his target. The flying debris didn't bother her as she nonchalantly cast a spell over her shoulder, directed at the ceiling above her dazed victim. When the clamour was replaced with silence, she turned around to discover a fair amount of wreckage where Beast Boy previously was. And nothing remotely green under, she noted.

What Jinx did notice, however, was a small blur hurrying past her. She swiftly tried to crush it, but her platform boot only caught the tail of a green mouse. Jinx prepared to crush the rest of the creature with her other foot when the thin tail turned into the much larger and scaly extension of a boa. She stumbled back and fell down and, in a split second, the snake sprung and trapped Jinx in its coils. Consumed by his fury, Beast Boy tightened his deadly grip around the struggling witch, whose breathe became more strenuous as the seconds slipped by.

Then, her body gave a last convulsion before going still, eyes rolled upwards.

Upon that realisation, Beast Boy loosened his grip, his rage faded away. He drew near her pale face, his forked tongue touching gently her nose. Despite his animal instincts, killing or even harming others was something he always abhorred.

And that was when Jinx's head violently met his own, forcing Beast Boy to release her and knocking him down, back to his human form.

"Silly little kitty," she sneered. "I assumed the one-man-zoo would know about playing dead. Looks like I overestimated you."

Beast Boy shook his head and swiftly got off the ground. Morphing into a cheetah, he bounced at Jinx and knocked her over. Before the girl could even voice her dissatisfaction, the feline dashed away from her and disappeared into the shadows.

She stood up, wiping any fur the green cheetah had lost off her dark outfit. In spite of his escape, because of his escape, Jinx smiled. The second round of hide-and-seek had just started, and it promised to be very interesting.

-

Raven and Starfire flew away from each other just in time to avoid a yellow table sent by their massive foe. They had led Mammoth to the vast living room, where their powers were much more useful than in cramped corridors, but he still proved to be extremely dangerous.

The genetically-manipulated giant tore off the top of the second yellow L-shaped table and threw it at the duo. Starfire reacted quickly enough to dodge the whirling projectile but Raven hadn't such luck and found herself crashing into the television after a heavy hit in the stomach. Leaving no break to his opponent, Mammoth ripped the remaining foot of the table from the ground and charged Starfire.

She shot up to avoid the swing, but not fast enough which allowed Mammoth to strike brutally her left leg. Starfire let out a sharp cry of pain and kicked him in the chin with her unhurt foot. Stumbling backwards due to her alien strength, Mammoth bellowed and grabbed her legs before turning over and tossing her towards the entrance of the room.

Meanwhile, Raven had recovered from her displeasing introduction to the furniture. She silently got back on her feet and drew near Mammoth as quietly. The unsuspecting villain was knocked to the ground by a roundhouse kick to his legs and Raven took advantage of his temporary astonishment to veil the nearby counter with her dark powers, breaking the soldering that joined it to the floor before sending it on Mammoth.

"Starfire, you're alright?" the empath then asked as she ran away from him and towards her friend.

"I am unharmed by a majority, Raven," she answered, getting up.

"Thank goodness."

"Look out!" Starfire screamed as she clasped Raven's wrist and brought her inside the corridor.

The reduced width of the hall saved both girls from the counter Mammoth had hurled at them. The fissured piece of furniture broke in half under the shock and Starfire was thankful to have brought Raven and herself far enough into the corridor to not be harmed by the metal shards.

Mammoth walked towards them, an evil grin plastered on his face. "You won't beat raw strength with mind tricks, little lady," he chuckled.

"Then meet Tamaranean might, horrible man!" Starfire shouted as she leapt over the destroyed counter and rushed to her enemy. She threw a punch at him but he stopped it with his own hand, as well as her other punch. Their arms trembled from the power poured into their upper limbs.

"You're strong," he stated, looking her into the eyes. "But not strong enough!" He grabbed her wrists, spun around a few times and tossed her back into the hall. The alien hit forcefully Raven, who was stepping over the counter. Both of them barely stayed conscious.

Effortlessly crushing the remnants of the counter under his golden boots, the bearded villain walked to his fallen opponents. Clutching them by the wrist, he moved out of the corridor before carelessly throwing them on the couch. "Come on, give me some challenge!"

The girls only groaned in response.

Mammoth sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "It was supposed to be a tough final exam..." He straightened his back and crossed his arm. "Okay. I'll make it easy for you." A smirk appeared on his lips. "You'll throw everything you have at me. I won't move, I promise."

Neither Raven nor Starfire were really convinced of his promise, but if their foe was arrogant enough to give them a time out, they would use it. They stood up from the couch with difficulty, their frustration at being considered small fry obvious on their faces. "Raven, fly behind him," Starfire whispered. "We will trap him in a crossfire." Raven nodded and did so.

"Oh. Strategy," Mammoth observed, both eyebrows raised. "Sweet."

"Azarath..." A worrying shadow appeared on the floor before Raven

"You will regret assaulting our tower," Starfire growled as she lit up two starbolts around the palms of her hands. "And harming Robin..."

"...Metrion..." A dark talon silently rose out of the shadow, its ghostly claws directed at Mammoth's back.

He shrugged. "Whatever you say."

"...ZINTHOS!"

Mammoth was instantly seized by Raven's power. True to his word, he didn't move a muscle even when the claw lifted him or when Starfire hurled two green orbs of energy at his chest. He roared as the starbolts hit him and started to struggle, but before he could act efficiently, the claw engulfed him completely. With a blood-curling scream, Raven flung him through the floor, the grating of lacerated metal blending with her howling voice.

"Raven, your shriek was most chilling..." Starfire said as the empath levitated back to the ground. "Are you alright?"

Raven breathed heavily, the white light fading from her eyes. "Using much of my power... will do that..." She glanced at the gaping hole in-between them. "That... should take care of him..."

Just then, the floor panels before the entrance were dispatched in the air as a fist tore through the frameworks. Its fingers bended the metal as a massive form rose from the cavity. "Or not," Mammoth stated with a sardonic smile.

-

"What's the problem, tin can? Can't reach me here?" Gizmo taunted, solidly clung to the ceiling thanks to the spider legs of his backpack. They mimicked a dance, twirling around various equipment reaching the ceiling. "You don't have a pogo stick in that outdated carcass?" He aimed his laser at Cyborg, not at all disturbed by his machine's constant moving. "Too bad!"

Cyborg ran behind a crate of equipment to avoid the upcoming blasts. "You may walk on walls, but you can't match my sonic cannon!" His arm instantly became said weapon and started powering up. As soon as it was complete, he jumped out of his cover and aimed at the ceiling.

"Huh?" he uttered, glancing right and left. His target had disappeared.

Unbeknownst to him, Gizmo had taken advantage of the Titan's inability to see him from behind the crate and crawled down the wall. When the clicks of pistons and crankshaft reached Cyborg's ear, it was already too late.

"Peek-a-boo!" Gizmo yelled as he pulled the trigger of his weapon, blasting Cyborg into a pile of crates in front of him. Gizmo laughed and disappeared into the shadows before Cyborg could react.

"Where is that pint-sized brat?" Cyborg mumbled as he stood up. His arm had returned to its normal state. "I'll make him eat his gadgets when I get my hand on him..."

Screens suddenly buzzed to life beside him and dozens of childish faces stared at him as the room was filled with Gizmo's voice. "Yeah right snot face! You losers couldn't even defeat us three with that traffic light you call a boss!" The faces sniggered at an incensed Cyborg. "I'll kick your crudgy butt in no time!" This was followed by a large laser beam hitting fiercely Cyborg in the chest, propelling him back into the crate.

"You little..." he growled before hopping back to his feet. "Two can play hide-and-seek!" He then ran out of Gizmo's sight, rearming his cannon in order to be ready for whatever wicked surprise the prepubescent criminal could pull out from up his sleeves.

"That's right pit-sniffer, run away!" Gizmo shouted as he ordered his spider legs to approach a wall. "Two can play that game, but I'll win, chip brain!" The machine climbed the wall, bringing Gizmo closer to his destination. When he finally was heaved up to the ceiling, he scanned the room. Despite being at the highest point available and Cyborg's imposing figure, the many crates of ultra-modern gear blocked most of his view.

However, no matter how stealthy he tried to be, he failed to be silent. He heard the recognizable sound of metal hitting metal and knew in what direction Cyborg was. Gizmo chose not to move as the steps were coming in his direction and he readied his weapons.

"Surprise!" Cyborg appeared in front of Gizmo thanks to a mighty jump. He smacked one of the spider legs, reducing it to smithereens and sending Gizmo crashing into nearby crates. "You're not as quiet as you thought!" He yelled as he landed behind him.

He twirled around just in time to spot a small figure running away after abandoning his backpack. He dashed after Gizmo but he soon disappeared from his sight. Cyborg looked around and was pleased to discover that the puny villain had not run far away. He tiptoed in his direction and lifted the panel he was hiding behind, bearing a smug smile.

"How you gonna fight me without your tech?" _Crunch._ "Huh?" The kid he had cornered started to flicker as he stepped on the strange device. The skin around Cyborg's eye drew tight. "The brat's smarter than I thought," he mumbled as he backed away cautiously, checking his surroundings.

The crate behind him escaped his watchful gaze. Gizmo smirked as Cyborg continued to back away, approaching the piece of equipment he was perched on. His grasp over a hacking decoder of his invention tightened in anticipation, he hopped down onto the metal man's back, too light for Cyborg to notice him.

"Where is he?" he wondered out loud, in hopes to bait Gizmo, as he twirled around and crouched, lifting a crate to see if the pint-sized nuisance was hiding somewhere under it. He abruptly stood up, oblivious to Gizmo who clung to his back as best as he could, looking more like a rag doll than a kid genius. "Nope. Not here." Cyborg sneaked around, briskly turning around corners of equipment to face new departments.

"Where's that nasty nipper?"

His question was answered as he was informed of a violation of his systems. Gizmo had finally managed to get a grip strong enough to pop open a panel in Cyborg's back and pirated to circuitry. He flinched as his vision began to misfire. "Get out of my systems!" he screamed as he tried to get rid of the horrible parasite. "Nobody hacks my systems!"

Gizmo's eyebrows shot halfway up his forehead in surprise and contentment. "Ejector limbs?" He cackled. "It's dismembering time!" He pressed his tool on a specific command and Cyborg's right arm landed on the floor, pathetically rolling away.

He couldn't persist his piracy, for Cyborg finally grabbed him with his remaining arm and threw him away. He ran for his lost arm and was about to seize it when a blast of energy hit the limb, throwing it ricocheting around. Gizmo redirected his rapid fire on Cyborg, who was forced to retreat into the shadows, cursing his bad luck and his enemy.

-

"Running into a dead end in your own tower?" Jinx lightly shook her head. "Pathetic." Beast Boy just glared at her as he turned over.

She snapped her fingers and all the upper panels between her and the end of the hall caved in on Beast Boy. Jinx took a few steps back to admire her work. But her mental self congratulations were cut short as the heap of debris started to shake. As the tremor increased greatly, she ran back to the intersection and took cover behind a corner just in time to be protected from the heavy panels flying about.

Jinx risked a glance into the dead end only to see nothing less than a green tyrannosaurus rex, and a furious one at that. But she wasn't scared, anxious maybe, but not scared. She walked out from behind the corner and stood her ground, unperturbed by the mighty dinosaur's angry roars. Eyes glowing, she shot out her arms in front of her, her hands summoning a pink circle of misfortune around it. Beast Boy had no time to wonder what happened as the floor beneath him gave in with a loud screech, followed by his own growl of surprise.

The sorceress walked to the edge of the newly created hole down which her opponent disappeared. "HIVE missions, chapter three: assassinations." She recited sinisterly as she summoned more power into her hands. "When you kill something, kill it _good_." Smirking, she drowned the room underneath the hole with her magic. Once the blaring racket had diminished, she leaned over the edge and pricked her right ear while playfully blinking. Not a sound.

Her lips twisted into a smirk. "Mission complete."

Jinx walked away from the gap when a green tentacle sprung out of it and rolled itself around her. She could only scream as she was yanked into the hole she had generated. She tried to free herself by fidgeting, but it was needless. The grip loosened on its own and Beast Boy hurled her through the room. Pain coursed through her whole body upon hitting the wall farthest from the octopus.

As she recovered, Jinx understood why the changeling had jerked her here instead of going back to the halls above. This room was destitute of any lamp and the scarce illumination the upper floor provided wasn't enough for her to see her own hands whereas Beast Boy's acute senses allowed him to manage very well in this new environment.

A mighty roar interrupted her observation. She flattened herself on the ground and flinched as she heard claws shredding the metal she was standing in front of a second before. She rolled away in order to avoid another slice and kicked by guesswork in the darkness. Jinx heard an upset howl, cast a spell in its direction and smiled in relief when the cry doubled. But her break was cut short as Beast Boy morphed again. Jinx dared another spell in his direction, but it accomplished nothing except being bright enough for her to see an elephant's trunk swinging towards her.

The sorceress was violently propelled across the room and into a pile of wood crates that had stayed intact from her previous barrage of magic. Beast Boy trumpeted, signalling an imminent and possibly mortal charge. Jinx felt the adrenaline rising within her as the rapid steps sounded closer and closer. She bit back a shriek of panic and struggled to escape her entanglement by the broken planks.

As soon as her legs were free, she cartwheeled away and was saved in extremis from sharing the crates' fate and be trampled to death. Jinx knew she wouldn't always have such luck, so she settled for a tactical change. She ran in the darkness, the growl in her back asserting her enemy's morphing back to an enraged feline. When she found the nearest wall, she began running by it, her hands feverishly patting the surface in search of a switch. She was about to reach the corner and start to follow the next wall when she tripped over the remains of a metal crate.

Thankfully for her, it saved her from the fury of an emerald tiger that would have pounced on her back without this incident. The animal bounced back the wall and approached her. She kicked blind again but this time Beast Boy saw it coming and trapped her leg in his jaws. Jinx clenched her teeth because of the pain and tried to loose his grasp by kicking him with her free leg but failed miserably as the tiger swirled around, knocking her against the nearby wall. Then he swirled the other way, knocking her against the other wall. He repeated this three times before releasing the scarcely conscious villainess on the ground.

-

"Azarath..."

Starfire charged Mammoth with the intention to keep him away from her friend. He tried to use her own punch against her once again by clasping her wrist, but she recognised the move and used the palm of her other hand to strike strongly the intercepting hand. He tried to kick her in the chest in retaliation but she ducked and clutched the leg hovering over her with both hands. She then flew up to the ceiling, spinning him around during her elevation before hurling him towards the window, aiming for the ocean.

"...Metrion..."

Rather than tearing through the tall panels, Mammoth smashed into one of the steel separators. The two adjacent windows exploded into a drizzle of glass shards which he protected his eyes from by covering his face with his arms before growling out of frustration as he fell back from the separator, distorted under the shock, to the floor. Freeing his face, he looked at his opponents.

Exactly in the middle of the room, veiled in darkness and solely focused on her concentration, floated Raven, arms spread far apart and legs linked together. Starfire hovered between him and her, the determination to defend her until she finished her chant evident in her green eyes. He smirked as an amusing idea struck him.

He sniggered and cracked his knuckles before rushing to the alien. Starfire stood her ground, preparing for a punch that never came as Mammoth leapt a few metres before he reached her. She gasped as his foot landed on her head before he used her as a springboard to jump on Raven.

"ZIN-TOSS!" he shouted with an unhealthy bliss in his voice as he strongly wrapped his large fingers around her legs, breaking her focus and earning a cry mixing surprise and mild pain. He twirled around midair before powerfully tossing her out of the tower.

Any confusion at being used as a stepping stone vanished from Starfire's mind when she heard Raven's heart-wrenching scream as her body tore through a previously intact window. "RAVEN!" She couldn't take off to her rescue as Mammoth, who had landed in the meantime, ran to her and performed a roundhouse kick which sent her to the ground. He snickered as she slowly got back to her feet.

"You..." She hissed under her breath as she struggled to get back on her feet. "I will not let you destroy my home and my friends!"

She flew to Mammoth with an amazing speed and punched him square in the chin. He stumbled back as she continued punch after punch until he reached the couch and fell over it. She flew up and looked down at him, righteous fury fuelling her starbolts. In a matter of seconds, the giant was drowned under a rain of green blasts, the dust they stirred up and the smoke they created as they burst through flammable items eventually preventing Starfire to see anything around the couch.

She stopped her barrage and flew down, stepping on the floor. It had been the first time she had felt such desires of revenge and thus poured so much power in her starbolts. But the loss of Robin and Raven made any moral dilemma on the criminal's fate secondary.

"That's all you've got?" Starfire's expression froze as she slowly turned around to see a smirking Mammoth with his arms crossed. "Thanks for the smoke cloud, very useful to hide from the target's line of sight." His smirk widened. "The teachers told us you had the fiercest attacks..." He grinned. "I always knew teachers were good for nothing." His grin receded to a smug smile while he shook his head in mock lament. "Oh well."

The yellow top of the table he had destroyed earlier rested on the floor not too far beside him. He swiftly crouched before seizing it and throwing it at Starfire. She dodged it and powered a starbolt but Mammoth was already close enough to punch her in the shoulder, followed by a kick to the leg. But she didn't meet the ground as he grabbed her head and hurled her behind him, grinning complacently as yet another window panel was broken by his victim unwillingly traversing it.

He brushed dust from his hands and walked away from the window. "Too easy." After a few steps, he sensed something behind him. He turned over to see an enormous rock flying towards him. He failed to dodge it and the rock continued its course with Mammoth plastered on it until a collision with the wall above the corridor entrance. He fell to the floor with the boulder uncomfortably close to him. After recovering from the damage and surprise, he reduced the offender into pebbles with an impressive punch. He glared at the source of his introduction with applied geology.

"Is that difficult enough for you, miserable insect?" Raven's voice had a demonic tint that, added to the crimson glow inhabiting her eyes, actually managed to send a chill down Mammoth's spine. "No?" Her face bore an expression that could almost be qualified innocent upon saying this, but it soon gave way to a feral grin that the villain didn't see even in his worst nightmares. "Well, I'll have to surpass myself then..."

All the objects of the room suddenly veiled themselves into a black yet translucent aura. Devastated furniture joined cutlery to reinforce an ominous tornado threateningly advancing on Mammoth. Sporadic cries of pain escaped him as the content of the magical storm that engulfed him battered him. Forced into the eye of this unnatural cyclone, he had no choice but to walk towards Rage as she summoned her creation back to her. She increased its range and stepped inside the eye, unscathed and grinning madly.

"Don't be disappointed, I'm only warming up..." she whispered darkly as a menacing shadow appeared from under her closed cape and crawled towards Mammoth.

-

Even without his spider machine, Gizmo remained dangerous, especially that the arm he lost was the one incorporating his sonic cannon. Not to mention the midget's surprising agility. He kept popping out of places Cyborg didn't suspect before firing at him with his laser blaster. But Cyborg hadn't said his last word.

"Never thought I'd use one of those…" he muttered as he opened a container in his left leg, thanking his luck in misfortune that it was not the other arm he left, lest access to the container would have been very difficult. Very close to a death sentence in fact.

He produced a blaster of his own. It was nothing as complex as his sonic cannon, but it would still allow him to keep the threat at bay. He very quickly put it on the ground, closed his container and took the laser pistol back. He powered it and then fired by guesswork around Gizmo's last location. He flinched when he heard his twang laughter.

"You'll never get me, snot-sniffer!" He jumped from one crate to the other while laughing madly. "You know the saying loser! The bigger they are, the easier they're to shoot at!" At that he fired randomly in Cyborg's direction, forcing him to hop about to avoid the laser beams directed at his feet. "As graceful as a mud-licking dancing bear!" He shot some more. "Dance Cy-bear, dance!"

Gizmo was clearly enjoying himself with the scene, but Cyborg intended to take advantage of the situation. He was too focused on his blasts and taunts to realize they were an efficient give-away of his position. Despite the constant jumping the circumstances compelled him to achieve, Cyborg allowed a smile to grace his lips. He knew where that little firefly wannabe was now. He capered to dodge a blast before firing his own weapon at the crate on which Gizmo was currently standing.

"Crud!" he yelled as the skewered crate collapsed on itself. He would have cursed more if he hadn't noticed Cyborg moving towards him, with the firm intent to seize him with his remaining arm. He snatched his fallen blaster and fired at him, but his panic prevented him to aim well enough to touch him. Gizmo settled for a new tactic when the hand was centimetres only away. He swiftly shoved his hand down one of his pocket and took out a sticky bomb of his invention. He then chucked it in Cyborg's hand with a yell before profiting of his confusion to dash between his legs and disappear into the shadows.

Cyborg had barely bowed to look between his legs when the bomb exploded in his hand, drenching all his limb with liquid nitrogen that promptly froze, trapping the arm. He growled in displeasure as he was forced to mentally order his left arm to overheat itself. He growled some more as the frozen nitrogen melted back to liquid, taking a second to sigh in relief that Gizmo was too busy fleeing to prevent him to free his arm.

Just as he cancelled the overheating, two blasts ricocheted on his back, throwing him to the ground. Grumbling more than ever, Cyborg rolled on his back quickly enough to notice a shadow running from one aisle to another. He took aim and shot the feet of the rack Gizmo just ran behind and couldn't help but smirk as it fell on the midget. He took advantage of this pause in the laser barrage to hop back on his feet before running towards Gizmo.

The kid had managed to extricate himself in time to avoid his ire, but it cost him his blaster, uselessly lying near the rack. Cyborg crushed it under his right foot in pretence of poetic justice for his lost right arm. He smiled smugly in victory. Gizmo had lost his blaster and his backpack was laying under whichever ruined furniture. Victory was near, he just had to finally catch the insufferable pest.

-

Though severely beaten, Jinx managed to blast Beast Boy in the face, sending him growling away. But she knew he would soon be back. She summoned the remains of her dazed strength and got on her knees. She heard the tiger rushing at her and replied by swirling to her feet, welcoming his charge with a double kick to the side of his feline head. Her forces progressively coming back, she then jumped over him before dashing to the wall, ignoring her aching muscles.

Realizing his hunt was useless, Beast Boy decided to change his strategy. He stopped making noise, suppressing his instinct to growl. He moved silently to one corner of the room and hopped on a mound of unbroken crates. Waiting patiently for Jinx to pass by him to pounce on her.

But he had not understood what she was doing when he got her, his mind too wrapped up around taking her down to ponder her actions. Taking full advantage of the lull of attacks, Jinx went back to searching a switch. It did not matter whether it would turn the light on or open the door. Both would save her.

As Beast Boy observed her tap the walls, he finally understood. And just as Jinx found two switches and activated them, flooding the room in light and freeing an exit, he dashed towards her, without a roar. Jinx twirled around the doorframe to exit a second before it was sliced by claws. She shrieked and ran down the corridor, finding the quickness of thought to hex the entire section behind her as she fled.

Many portions of the corridor broke down on Beast Boy, forcing him to evade multiple panels to avoid being knocked out and left at the mercy of the one of the three who killed Robin.

That particular thought encouraged him to go beyond his limits and he morphed into a cobra, swiftly eluding the falling debris and advancing quickly on her heels. He avoided all of her spells, even when they were aimed directly at him. He had closed in when she smashed a switched, entered the room she just opened and instantly closed the door again.

She then turned on the light and slumped against the door, panting heavily. She took in the new sight and realised it was a training room. Dumbbells, treadmills, gigantic presses most likely used by Cyborg, target launcher, they were as well furnished as the HIVE, at least speaking of the less lethal, merely physical training room.

Her reflection was cut short when a huge fist smashed the door centimetres above her head. She sidestepped, got back up and flattened herself against the wall in the hope that he wouldn't notice her as soon as he entered. It occurred to Jinx that he was too blinded in rage to realize he could have simply used the switch as well, and that she herself had been too blinded by panic to realize that before. She was lucky.

Three more punches later, the fist of a green gorilla tore through the door. Then the second fist. Strong fingers gripped the sliding door and pulled it out of its rails, distorting the wall in doing so. He then flung the door inside the room and Jinx could feel a lump in her throat. She, and not those treadmills, could have on its passage.

The gorilla burst in, frenetically hitting his chest. Adopting a well-tried tactic, Jinx cursed the panel above Beast Boy from her position. It swung loose and hit him in the back of his skull. Unfortunately, it didn't knock him out and she soon found herself with an ape firing a glare filled with hatred at her.

Jinx scurried around him, avoiding two enormous fists that pounded the floor instead, and ran to the dumbbell rack, all the while hexing the target launcher so that it threw its content at him. After a twirl to check her position, the gorilla followed after her, easily breaking the whirling disks with punches. When he was about to catch up with her, Jinx cast a spell just behind her feet and darted sideways. Beast Boy tripped and landed head first into the dumbbell rack. Jinx didn't leave him any break as she, once again, hexed the ceiling.

She could witness the massive furry legs of the ape, sticking out from under the panel, revert back to scrawny legs ended with boots.

Jinx sighed in relief.

-

Rage yawned as she pulled another piece of furniture from her tornado and sent it at her opponent. "Mammoth of the HIVE, isn't it?" she rhetorically asked, watching him helplessly trying to dodge her projectiles. "Bee would have been more appropriate." A sadistic smile distorted her face when the giant was hit in the back of the head by a chair. "My mistake. A bee is more worthy. Not only is it not as easy to crush, but it provides better entertainment as well."

His head still throbbing in pain, Mammoth grabbed the offending chair and hurled it at Rage, who dodged it effortlessly. He took another flying object from the magical tornado and threw it as well, only to bounce off the ethereal shield she had created. He growled in frustration before charging her and punching her shield with a speed surprising for someone of his calibre. She remained composed as the villain poured all his rage into his strikes. After a few dozens of punches, Mammoth pulled back, breathing heavily.

She was only toying with him. Mammoth knew it and it enraged him but he couldn't let fury cloud his mind. The HIVE had taught them otherwise, even though he wished they had taught him about the powerful consequences of Raven's crimson-eyed fury. He glanced around him, trying to search anything that could help him. Rage floated there, smirking and visibly enjoying the whole ordeal. His surroundings were composed of large objects flying around both of them at high speed. He couldn't see through the tornado.

But he could see what was in the tornado, he realized. Ignoring or dodging the small pieces furniture Rage launched at him, he focused his eyes in search of an object big enough to contain his weight. The couch entered his sight. Mammoth took a few seconds to analyse how quick it turned around him, something the HIVE had thankfully found necessary to teach its students.

He suddenly ran towards the tornado and soared up. The couch was just under him as he entered, all according to plan. He then jumped out of the cyclone, finally free from the deadly magic. The next step was to run around the tornado and enter it again, but behind Rage whose position he had memorised.

But as he was about to run, the tornado ceased and all the furniture fell to the ground. "I stand corrected. You're tougher than a bee," Rage said in the most eerily calm tone. "You, however, won't be able to stand for a long time once I'm finished with you."

There were cupboards and drawers that had not been attracted into her cyclone because they were joined to the floor. They opened and all the cutlery flew out of them, transported by a dark veil. Knives and forks surrounded the giant, their pointy ends aimed at different parts of his body. The fur on his face prevented anyone to realize it, but Mammoth paled.

"No," Rage surprisingly declared, "that would be too easy. Too boring." With a wave a of her hand to add in drama, the cutlery started to whirl on themselves and around Mammoth, creating another twister. "Trapping idiots is so much more amusing than downright killing them."

Mammoth clenched his jaw in anger, but an idea hit him. "Oh, I see," he commented haughtily.

Rage raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Now that the tornado is actually," he stressed that word, "dangerous, you're too scared," stressed again, "to enter it." He chucked. "Why am I not surprised?"

Her eyes narrowed to slits, Rage replied, "Are you calling me a coward?"

"Maybe."

She thrust her arm forwards and opened her palm, forcing the furniture her powers had abandoned earlier to take off again and to join the widening cutlery cyclone. She ordered the items to fly by her without touching her as she stepped inside the eye of the new, more dangerous storm.

"You were saying?" Her sadistic smile crept its way back on her face.

"I was saying that you're a coward. With baby skin." The fact that she avoided physical contact with the knives didn't escape him.

Rage released an unearthly snarl before rushing to him, her powers taking the forms of blades around her hands. Mammoth was amazed that she still managed to control the tornado in spite of this attack, but didn't have time to ponder anything else as he was backed away to dodge lethal slices. He dropped to the ground, using his arms as support, to avoid a roundhouse kick. Before she could get back on two feet, he kicked her standing leg, forcing her to do the splits. Rage winded and hissed in pain. Mammoth then whirled around to deliver a flying kick to her head. The twister ended.

He stood up. Towering above her seemingly unconscious form, he was about to deal the finishing blow when black tentacles sprung out of under her cloak and rolled themselves around his arms, effectively stopping his attack. A second later, he was tossed across the room and through one of the last glass panels.

The shock had knocked Rage out, so it was Raven herself who got her senses back. She got back to her feet with difficulty, trying to remember what could have caused her such a headache. She noticed the chaos around her and gasped as the memories flooded her sore mind. A hairy brute calling himself Mammoth had thrown her out of Titan Tower, as well as Starfire. Rage had taken over in time to prevent her fall but the alien hadn't come back. She noticed a third broken pane in their tall window. So, Rage had given Mammoth a taste of his own medicine. But she still hadn't any idea how Starfire was. She ran to the edge. Just as she bowed to inspect the shore metres under her, a massive hand grabbed her head before throwing her down.

Mammoth smirked as he heard his target scream as she plummeted towards the cold waters surrounding the island. He then continued to climb the tower in order to reach the living room, ready to tell his teammates about his success.

-

This game of hide-and-seek was prone to fail, Cyborg realized. This left him only one alternative. He put his weapon back into its cache and ran directly towards the closed door, not having to worry about blasts anymore. When he reached the door, he turned around, briefly cursing himself for not having repaired the light of this room yet. The only illumination was provided by the giant screens.

They were enough for Gizmo, who had stealthily followed him while keeping a safe distance, to see Cyborg's shoulders slide open.

"Farewell, storage room seventeen," Cyborg murmured as the first missiles of a long salvo shot out of their launchers. Thankfully, they were not powerful enough to even scratch his lost titanium arm.

Gizmo screamed and scampered away as the whole room shook more and more as the missiles crashed through crates or exploded into metal shelves. He jumped behind some debris quickly enough to avoid a rocket, which ended its deadly course into a giant screen instead. Gizmo pulled his knees to his chest and put his fingers into his ears, waiting for the hell unleashed by Cyborg to end. Fortunately for the kid, the supply of missiles wasn't unlimited and Cyborg closed his launching sets.

He scanned the room he just reduced to fragments. The inflammable material had caught on fire, which provided him the illumination he had so desperately needed. Some of his tension deserted his body through a sigh when he realized there was no hint of burnt or dispatched corpse. He had been aiming high anyways to minimise the damages done to the hopefully defenceless villain.

All of sudden, a three-legged machine sprouted out of the debris. Or rather, a four-legged machine that had lost a leg sprouted out of the debris. Whether it was because Gizmo had a remote or because of a security system set off by rocket damage, he didn't know. He didn't care either, as a ridiculously big laser blaster popped out of the backpack as its three legs crawled their ways towards him

He shouldn't have stored his pistol away with so much haste, Cyborg realized as the laser shot him through the door and into the wall behind it. He ran on the left but after a few steps, about-turned and dashed back to the entrance. He jumped before he reached it, essentially tricking the machine into thinking he escape left when he in fact hid right.

When the damaged spider crossed the entrance, its laser aimed left, Cyborg punched the rifle with enough strength to tear it off the backpack. He continued his blows, breaking the machine more and more. until the machine was little more than ruins.

Gizmo watched in horror as his remote-controlled creation ended pummelled to death. He had one last option. He opened a pocket and removed a sphere from it. He dashed to the exit, brushing against the walls in doing so to avoid Cyborg's line of sight. When he arrived, he threw the sphere onto his invention that was still getting punched and it exploded in a smoke of electronics countermeasure.

Cyborg's vision crackled as his punches became more erratic. His sensors failed too, thus he didn't notice Gizmo sneaking by and hopping on his back once again, hacking decoder ready. After disabling a few intelligently chosen programs, Cyborg was deactivated.

"Take that, pit-sniffer!"

-

Jinx arrived in the living room, dragging Beast Boy's unconscious form behind her, and saw Mammoth dropping Cyborg on the floor in front of the broken windows. Their friend would never have been able to bring him back here by himself, after all. Gizmo kicked the metal man for good measure.

"Mission complete?" Jinx asked, her eyes searching the room for Starfire and Raven. She dropped her victim near Gizmo's.

Mammoth then kicked Cyborg and Beast Boy out of the room and into the ocean. "Mission complete," he stated.


End file.
